JOGLE Day 2: Edinburgh To Thurso And Thurso To John O’ Groats And Back!

JOGLE Day 2 – Edinburgh to Thurso and Thurso to John O’ Groats and back!

The first shock of the day was realising the train to Thurso was a seven hour journey with a two hour wait in Inverness. After travelling from Shropshire to Edinburgh I was thinking that was that – we were in Scotland – we were practically there. The size of Scotland was beginning to sink in – and that was during a train ride, nevermind a cycle!

We left our Airbnb in Edinburgh after helping ourselves to breakfast. We felt weird digging around a stranger’s kitchen.

In Inverness we stocked up on essentials – food and water from the local Aldi. Stew, cautious as ever, wanted to carry extra water, as it was so hot and it’s pretty isolated in parts of the highlands. We can’t risk running out of water on an eighty mile bike ride in the midst of summer. You’ll notice I said ‘Stew wanted to carry…’ – more like Stew had to carry – I didn’t have the space on my bike, nor the strength at the time.

Once we stocked up for the days ahead we had a pit stop at the Pizza Express, minutes from the train station. I ordered a slimmers pizza – you know those pizzas where there’s a hole in the middle full of salad? Not quite the epic pre-1022 mile bike ride pizza I was anticipating, but never mind, it was actually great!

Inverness to Thurso

The train from Inverness to Thurso was beautiful! Before we’d set foot in Thurso we’d raised £1365 from the sponsored bike ride for Shropshire Mind. At the time this was ninety-one percent of our already revised target of £1,500 . We decided to go for it and we bumped it to £2,000! Amazing since bums had not even met saddles yet!

We arrived in Thurso at six in the evening. It was time to make a mad twenty mile round trip to the top of Scotland and begin our JOGLE cycle.

We checked into our Airbnb for the night. It was the cheapest apartment we could find. The decor was old. It reminded me of my great-aunt’s home. There was an old patterned rug on the floor and a faded brown leather armchair that was full of wrinkles. The land lady showed us around – she was very helpful. On the phone she had called us and asked if we wanted anything, we didn’t, but she kept insisting, so I asked for a beer. True to her word, in the fridge were four ice cold tenants lagers. She’d laughed when I asked for it, but I couldn’t wait to drink it! There was no way I’d manage four on my own though and Stew doesn’t drink beer.

Once the house-tour was over we dumped our stuff and cycled to John O’ Groats. The adventure officially began!

Thurso to John O’Groats and back

Like all good bike rides, there was hell of a head wind all the way there, quite literally the worst I have ever experienced. It was blowing into us and from the side – I could feel the bike shaking underneath me. Luckily, on the way back there was a decent tail wind, which felt like an absolute blessing because that never happens! Right?

As soon as we got back to the apartment we ordered a HUGE Chinese, which was right next door. The food was as cheap as the Airbnb and oh dear – it was awful! Prawns so rubbery I didn’t even eat them and that’s saying something! We jumped in a shower, which fell apart as we were under it (eek!).

The beer was well received and at least we had a bed for the night for a good night sleep before the next adventure.

Post written by: Zoe Ashbridge